Bucking Bulls and Stock Dogs Demo

An event on the weekly calendar at Rancho Oso was for a "Bucking Bulls and Stock Dogs Demo" on Saturday at 11am. We weren't sure what this might be, but headed to the arena to check it out.

We were met at the arena by a couple of the wranglers on the ranch. They let us know that they would be bringing a half dozen young bulls up to the arena, using "Duke", the Australian Kelpie stock dog. Then they would be giving us a demonstration of the preparations of a bucking bull for competition.

Dave and Dakota

Bill and Lucy

The wranglers and Duke bringing the bulls up to the arena

In the arena - coming across to the bucking chutes.

Once they had brought the bulls up and had them in the bucking chute area, another lady brought her Welsh pony and showed how she was training him to be willing to be led by halter, go up on steps, and over small jumps.

Then it was time for the young bulls to strut their stuff.

Bucking bull #1: https://youtu.be/nd7kzrdA_Bo
Bucking bull #2: https://youtu.be/nocDruMDtmA

These bucking stock bulls are the product of Bill's bull, Thunder Jack, and Dave's cattle, which are Corriente breed. We talked for a little while with Bill - asking questions about the production of bucking stock. These bulls will not be used for rodeos until they are probably about 3-4 years old (2-3 years from now). At this point, he is just evaluating their capabilities. Both of these bulls bucked very well in his estimation. He has a weighted dummy on the bull's back that he can cause to release when the bull is doing the action that he wants them to remember as the thing to do to get a cowboy off their back (spinning is what he was looking for). The activity that they were doing also gets the bulls used to being in the handling chutes and working in the way he needs them to work.